Will Wright

Born: Jan 1960

Born in Atlanta, Georgia, game designer Will Wright is famously the father of the "Sim". Not flight, racing or management sims, but something much more ambitious - games that simulated the world.

Cutting his teeth designing 1984's Raid on Bungeling Bay for the Commodore 64, later released on NES and MSX. Following a chance meeting in 1986 with investor Jeff Braun, the pair formed developer Maxis in 1987. Two years later the company bore its first fruit - SimCity. In the subsequent years Maxis created, amongst others, Sim Earth, SimAnt, A-Train, SimCopter and SimCity 2000

After going public in 1995, the company was acquired by Electronic Arts in 1997, and Maxis entered a period of few hits worthy of the company's early glories. This changed in 2000 with the release of The Sims. Accompanied with too many sequels to mention, the Sims series changed the face of the "God game" genre and recruited a whole new band of gamers - girls.

In 2007 Wright was honoured with a BAFTA Fellowship for outstanding creative work in gaming, becoming the first member of the games industry to received accolade.

Software Highlights from Credited Titles

Will Wright's first video game work that SPOnG is aware of is the 1984 title, "Raid on Bungeling Bay" (C64) as Lead Programmer. Of the titles listing Will within the credits , "The Sims" (PC) and "SPORE" (PC) have been best selling titles.

Will's most recent involvement was as Original Concept on the 2008 release "SPORE" (PC).

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